


How Long Does It Take To Fall In Love?

by orangelapin



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Comedy, Drama, Falling In Love, M/M, Modern Royalty, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Katsuki Yuuri, POV Katsuki Yuuri, Prince Victor Nikiforov, Romantic Comedy, Royalty, Secret Identity, Slow Burn, Victor Nikiforov is Extra
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 02:58:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10584999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangelapin/pseuds/orangelapin
Summary: Yuri Katsuki never wanted to meet his idol. He couldn't imagine Prince Victor ever caring about a lowly college student. Yuri's also pretty sure he'd screw up everything if he ever met Prince Victor and he'd like to save himself the embarrassment. Unfortunately for Yuri, he's going to lose his dignity and his shirt in very short order after meeting the prince.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m keeping this fic a discrimination-free zone like the show itself. I can’t believe I feel a need to give a warning about this, but I’m using their cannon name spellings in this story. (Possible exception on Sara/Sala since I’d heard her name had been corrected to Sara, but now I can’t seem to find evidence of that.) No beta so I’m sorry in advance for mistakes. Hope you enjoy it! Comments and kudos are always appreciated. :)

“Look what I found at the store!”

Yuri looked up at the sound of his roommate’s cheerful voice. Phichit was holding a local magazine that had an image of the prince. The typical sensationalist headline was splashed across the glossy photo.

PRINCE VICTOR STILL LOOKING FOR HIS TRUE LOVE?

Yuri took the magazine. “Does a prince even really get to fall in love?” he mumbled.

“Oh. Sounds like you’re interested in attending the next ball,” Phichit said.

Yuri scoffed. “I’ve already told you. I don’t like Prince Victor like that.”

Celebrity crushes were a weird thing to Yuri. He admired Prince Victor for the generosity and kindness he showed to the people of his land. Prince Victor was said to be smart, athletic, and adept at just about anything he put his hand to. Prince Victor was Yuri’s inspiration, not just a pretty face.

“I can’t believe they’re holding another ball though,” Phichit said. “This has gotta be the fifth one now, right?”

“I think so.” Yuri flipped through the magazine to find the headline article. “Ah, here it is. Yep. Looks like it’s the fifth one. It’s so weird isn’t it?”

Phichit laughed. “Yeah! Our kingdoms would never have public balls like this. It’s like some old fashioned fairytale.”

“I know,” Yuri said. “Oh. Listen to this. ‘According to our source, the King and Queen are very concerned about their only son finding a spouse. They are considering finding one for him if this next ball fails to produce someone that catches the Prince’s eye.’”

“Oh no! This might be your last chance Yuri!”

“Phichit…”

“Come on. It wouldn’t hurt. Right?”

“No way. I can’t stand in front of the prince. I mean, he’s… He’s… Well, he’s accomplished a lot more in his life than I ever will. Why would he even want to talk to someone that’s struggling just to get a computer science degree?”

“So you do want to meet him?” Phichit said with a sly grin.

Yuri groaned and fell back on his bed. He let the magazine fall over his face. “No.”

“Well, I guess you couldn’t meet him anyway. Don’t they screen the applicants for three months or something like that?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm.”

Yuri sighed. He could almost hear Phichit trying to think up a way to get him into the ball.

“Oh. Hey, Yuri? Weren’t you starting a new job tonight?”

Yuri ripped the magazine off his face and sprang up. Where’d he put his phone? “Oh no. No. No. No! I’m going to be late!”

 

~  ~  ~

 

The manager did not look impressed when Yuri tore through the staff entrance at exactly his scheduled start time. Yuri fumbled over his apologies and rushed into the changing room. He was amazed he’d even gotten a chance to serve at such a classy wine bar.

He was much less amazed after the manager explained the details of his employment. Today was to be a trial to see if the manager really wanted to hire him. (Yuri already had a strike against him since apparently being barely on-time wasn’t good enough.) Yuri would be asked to stay late and sign employment documents if he was hired. Otherwise he’d being given payment for the day’s work under the table and that would be it. The manager got Yuri’s name wrong three times during his speech.

Yuri swallowed his pride and agreed to do his best. He was given a uniform to wear, but it wasn’t a very good fit. It was handsome though. A dark, wine red shirt with a black vest and pants. A white tie completed the look and gave the outfit an unexpected, but rather nice bit of contrast. If it had been tailored, Yuri thought it’d make him look very mature. As it was though, it made Yuri feel like a kid playing dress up. Yuri spent the first couple hours trying not to trip over his own pant legs.

The bar was packed with the after Friday work crowd. Business men and women gathered around tables, still dressed in fine clothes. It was intimidating to a student who considered his best outfit a secondhand suit and tie his dad gave him after graduating high school.

The wine names were in another language half the time. Yuri tried his best to keep them straight, but it was hard when they all sounded the same to him. Luckily, most of the staff were friendly enough and could usually guess what the customer wanted after listening to Yuri’s badly pronounced attempts at repeating the orders.

But then it just had to go wrong. Two people called in sick and the manager freaked out about calling in replacements and that in turn made Yuri’s familiar anxiety creep up. Suddenly no other staff had time to help the newbie. Despite everyone’s best efforts, orders were severely backed up and there was a noticeable note of impatience and anger in the air. Yuri started to apologize to customers left and right, but it barely made a difference. More and more people left after giving up on waiting for their orders.

He was so going to be fired.

Yuri finished another round of apologies to a group that was threatening to leave when the room seemed to collectively gasp. Yuri spun around and was face to face with someone he’d only ever seen on TV and in photos.

Prince Victor smiled and raised his hand. “Hi!”

The room gasped again.

There were a slew of men and women in dark suits behind him. They eyed the room with suspicion, but Prince Victor walked up to the table Yuri was at and smiled his amazing smile again. But the smile wasn’t for Yuri. The prince’s gaze was aimed at the disgruntled group that were half standing up with coats in hand.

“Were you just leaving? May I have this table?” Prince Victor said.

The group froze, eyes wide. Someone in the group eventually cleared his throat and broke the silence. “Er. Yes. Prince Victor. The table is all yours, of course.” The rest of the group stood up and eased their way past the prince and his bodyguards. They’d made it out of the bar before Yuri realized they hadn’t paid their bill.

He was so fired.

“Do you have a good red recommendation?”

“Huh?” Yuri spun back to the table.

Prince Victor had already taken a seat and was looking up at him expectantly.

“O-oh. Uh. Red wine. Right? Yeah. Um.”

A recommendation? Yuri could barely remember the names of the wines they had, let alone recommend one. He settled on naming the last red wine he remembered serving someone.

Prince Victor looked at Yuri with an unreadable expression. “Alright then,” Prince Victor said. “I’ll take a glass of that to start.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

Yuri scurried off to the safety of the bar and the other starstruck employees.

Prince Victor stood up suddenly and the room froze.

“Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for interrupting your evening,” he said, his clear voice resonated easily throughout the room. “I’d like to remind everyone that the palace will be hosting another ball soon. If you can’t make it to that one, I hope you can make it to the next one. It’s always a pleasure when I get to meet more citizens of this beautiful country. Thank you for your attention.”

People applauded, but Yuri couldn’t say why. Probably because no one could figure out what else to do while the prince’s bodyguards glared at the crowd like they might open fire at any moment.

Prince Victor sat back down and distracted himself with his phone.

“Here.” The manager shoved a tray into Yuri’s hands then balanced a glass of red wine on top of it. “Don’t screw this up,” the manager hissed.

Yuri nodded. He felt numb. He had already screwed up so much tonight. Why couldn’t someone else do this for him? He turned carefully to face Prince Victor. The prince was still buried in his phone, thankfully.

One step at a time. Just walk... Yuri could walk. That wasn’t hard. He could serve the prince his wine one careful step at a time.

It was a good plan, but one that didn’t account for Yuri’s poor fitting outfit and his stupid foot landing just right on a pant leg to trip Yuri and send him and the tray flying. Yuri heard the wine glass shatter as he landed hard onto the wood floor.

Yuri knew it was going to be bad before he even looked up.

The prince huffed and Yuri forced himself to look at damage he’d done. A red stain painted the prince’s white shirt and he looked furious.

Yuri’s gut clenched. “Oh, no. P-Prince Victor. I’m so, so sorry. Let me clean that.” Yuri scrambled up and grabbed a napkin off the table. He tugged Prince Victor’s shirt flat and started to scrub at the stain. He stopped when the room took a collective gasp.

Yuri knew he screwed up again.

He looked into Prince Victor’s face. Blue eyes regarded Yuri with another indecipherable look, but the frown on Prince Victor’s face spoke volumes.

Yuri released his hold on the prince’s shirt and jumped back with his hands in the air.

Then Yuri bowed.

Then Yuri ran away so fast he was surprised he only tripped once more before he made it to the changing room.

To hell with this job… With his life… He knew it. He knew he’d screw up everything if he ever met his idol.

Yuri fought back tears while he changed back into a regular college student. He ran out the staff door as soon as he was finished. The sound of the manager screaming obscenities chased Yuri all the way back to his dorm room. At least his breakdown waited for him to get into the comfort of his own bed before it overtook him.


	2. Chapter 2

Bar Sapphire was more of a club than a bar. Definitely more Phichit’s scene than Yuri’s, but Yuri’s roommate insisted that drinking and dancing was the best way to feel better again. Phichit had put up with so much from Yuri over the years that Yuri couldn’t find it in his heart to refuse Phichit’s offer tonight. Phichit hadn’t even asked Yuri what made him cry. Over time, Phichit knew not to ask until Yuri was ready to talk. It was one of the things Yuri liked about his friend.

Now that The Incident™ was a day behind him, Yuri knew he couldn’t keep hiding in bed all day. It still took a monumental effort on Yuri’s part to get up and find something decent to wear to the club.

Phichit looked amazing of course. He had an uncanny knack for pulling together an outfit that looked like it came off a runway even though he had a very limited budget. It was an enviable skill and one that Yuri was never able to learn, despite his best efforts. Getting Phichit’s approval for Yuri’s outfit tonight had been an agonizing task. Okay, so maybe a plain white collared shirt and black slacks didn’t exactly scream, “club wear,” but it definitely didn’t scream, “washed up IT consultant,” either thankyouverymuch Phichit.

Their halfhearted clothing argument behind them, Phichit led the way to Bar Sapphire. It was located only a mile from the campus, but Phichit assured Yuri that the club wouldn’t have just students there. Yuri didn’t see why it mattered either way. True, he usually got along with older people better than people his own age, but he wasn’t planning on talking or dancing with anyone other than Phichit that night.

Yuri bounced uneasily on his feet as they waited in line to get inside. The music vibrated through the walls and onto the sidewalk. He could feel it thrum through his chest. How loud was it going to be inside?

“I think Otabek is DJ’ing tonight,” Phichit said excitedly.

Yuri had no idea who Phichit was talking about, but smiled anyway. They chatted about school until they were finally at the front of the line. The ten dollar cover better be worth it, Yuri thought bitterly. They stepped inside and Yuri was overwhelmed by a heavy bass beat. He tried not to tense up at the sight of the Saturday night crowd thronging the entirety of the building.

“Let me buy you a drink first,” Phichit shouted over the music.

Yuri nodded and that started his next round of bad decisions.

 

~  ~  ~

 

“You look so much like him,” someone gushed.                                                                          

“I know,” the dark haired man said to his adoring crowd. “I’m actually an impersonator.”

“No way!” A girl in a pink dressed squealed. “Have you been on TV and stuff?”

The man laughed. “Yes. I’ve been in a few documentaries. Not that you could tell with all the soft focus and lighting they do in those. They don’t want the audience to see how different the impersonator is from the real thing.”

Yuri squinted up at the man. He couldn’t remember where he’d left his glasses. Probably Phichit had them, but Yuri couldn’t remember where he’d left Phichit either.

Actually, he wasn’t even sure why he was standing here. He bumped into the man on accident while he was wandering around looking for his lost roommate earlier. Yuri apologized and received an amused reply. Then for some reason he couldn’t name (but was probably alcohol inspired), Yuri stopped wandering around and decided he was content standing near the dark haired guy.

The man glanced at Yuri. “Do you think I look like Prince Victor too?”

Yuri drained the rest of his drink. It was fruity and went down smooth. “Yeah. Ya do,” Yuri replied. “You’re both too good looking.”

That earned a laugh from the handsome, blurry man.

“Can I buy you another drink?” Not-Victor asked.

Oh. That sounded very nice. Yuri nodded and immediately regretted the action when the room tilted at a weird angle. The man thrust a hand out and steadied Yuri.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Yuri said. “But thank you. You’re very nice, Mister Not-Prince Victor.”

The man seemed to fight back a smile, but it was hard to tell when he was so blurry.

“I’m glad you think so. Now how about that drink?” Not-Victor squeezed past his disappointed fans with a hand resting lightly on Yuri’s back, guiding him to the bar.

“What were you drinking?”

Yuri shrugged. “Dunno. Something good. And pink.”

Not-Victor chuckled. “Well, they have some good cocktails here. I’ll pick one out then?”

“Sure. You can buy me as many drinks as you want.”

They laughed at that and stood close to each other, their heads inclined so they could hear each other over the noise.

“Are you here with someone?”

“Yep. My roommate, but I dunno know where he is. What about you?”

“Same. More or less. I lost the friend I came with the second after we stepped inside. He’s probably dancing though.”

Yuri’s reply was forgotten when glasses of something bubbly and pink were set in front of them. He reached for one, took a sip and melted.

“Did I choose well?”

“Mmmhhhmmm.”

Yuri was close enough to see Not-Victor’s brown eyes dance with delight at Yuri’s response.

“You know what’s really cool?” Yuri said as the alcohol hit him again, harder than before.

“What’s that?”

“My family runs a hot spring inn. It’s soooo nice. Have you ever been to a hot spring inn?”

“Can’t say that I have. Where is it?”

“Oh. It’s over there,” Yuri said. He vaguely waved his hand in the direction of the Eastern Kingdom.

Not-Victor stared at Yuri for a moment before laughing.

Suddenly the best song in the world blasted through the club.

“Oh. OH! This song. It’s this song!” Yuri told Not-Victor. Yuri hadn’t ever heard the song before, but he loved it immensely in that moment. “I gotta go. I gotta dance. This song. This. Song. It was made for dancing.”

Yuri slammed the rest of his drink and fumbled the glass onto the counter. Without another word he pushed through the crowd and onto the dance floor. To his surprise, Not-Victor followed him.

“I think I’ll join you,” the man shouted over the music.

Yuri grinned. That sounded like a great idea.

“Hey! What’s your name anyway?” the man asked.

“It’s Yuri!”

“Yuri. You can call me Alex.”

“I liked ‘Not-Victor’ better,” Yuri teased. “Let’s dance!”

 

~  ~  ~

 

Yuri fought waves of nausea as he staggered out of his bathroom. Phichit waited in the hallway with a large glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. Yuri took both items gratefully.

“So…” Phichit began to say before Yuri cut him off.

“We’re not talking about last night.”

Phichit squirmed. “But I got so many pictures! Can’t I just…”

“No!”

“They’re good pictures,” Phichit said as if that made it any better. “Come on. Let me post just a couple of them on Instagram. Please?”

“No, Phichit. I’ll let you post every other embarrassing photo you have of me as long as you pretend last night ever happened.”

Phichit shrugged. “Alright. Alright. I won’t post anything.”

“Thank you.”

“So how much do you remember after you got drunk?”

Yuri groaned. “Not nearly enough and you just promised not to say anything about last night.”

Phichit laughed. “Right. How about some breakfast for my mysteriously hung over roommate then?”

Yuri’s stomach flipped at the thought. “Maybe later,” he said. “I think I’m gonna try to sleep more of this off.”

Yuri handed back the glass and pills, then plodded back to his room and fell into bed.

What did he remember? Not much. His memories were dotted with impressions and fleeting bits of conversation. Music that was too loud. The press of bodies in the noise. Dancing too close to an impossibly handsome man.

Oh, and his missing shirt.

Yuri blushed. He was never going to see that shirt again, which was a shame because it’d been his best one.


	3. Chapter 3

The Prince stopped throwing balls after the fifth one. Now all the headlines were about Prince Victor’s mysterious lover and how the palace was preparing for a wedding that’d be announced any day now. Those headlines ran for months. They ran through the rest of Yuri’s time in school, through his graduation, and through his job hunt. Even now, having settled back home in the Eastern Kingdom with a real job, the headlines kept declaring that Prince Victor was getting married any day now.

Yuri put away his phone, tired of reading the same old rumors. He glanced around the train dotted with other fellow salarymen who got roped into working late. If he was to be honest, Yuri wasn’t sure he liked what he was doing. Working at a tech startup sounded fun at first, but the hours and the bad pay were weighing on him.

Better than trying to be a waiter at least.

The train pulled into the station and Yuri hurried off. It was a short walk home through quiet streets and Yuri was thankful to see the light at his family’s inn greet him. He tiptoed up to his old bedroom and paused just long enough to hang up his suit properly.

He collapsed onto his bed and stared at the empty walls.

The first thing Yuri did when he arrived back home after graduation was take down all his posters of Prince Victor. They lived in a box in the back of his closet now. It wasn’t that that Yuri had grown to dislike the prince. It was just hard to walk into a room full of his childhood dreams and see Prince Victor’s face staring out at him from every wall. It made Yuri remember their disastrous meeting. It made him think that nothing in his life could ever go right.

 

~  ~  ~

 

“You look so tired Yuri. Are you alright?”

Yuri stopped tying his laces and looked up at Yuuko. He smiled as best he could. “I’m okay. I’ve just been working a lot.”

Yuuko frowned. “Are you sure you should be doing this on your days off then?”

“I-I’m fine,” Yuri protested. “Besides, I really like working with the kids. This is a lot of fun for me.”

Yuuko sighed, but looked happy. “If you say so. I just wish we could offer you a full-time job here.”

Yuri felt his face heat up. Working around Yuuko all day would be too hard. “It’s fine. It’s not like I’m an amazing coach or anything.”

“Aww. Yuri, you should have more confidence in yourself. You’re the best skater I know!”

Yuri’s face was burning now. He frantically waved his hands in front of him. “I’m not! I can just do a few jumps and stuff. That’s nothing special. Besides…you were really good too, Yuuko.”

Yuuko giggled. “Thank you. But you know, I’m surprised you never tried to become a professional skater.”

Yuri shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I just lacked inspiration.”

“Inspiration?”

Their conversation was cut off by a group of noisy kids walking through the doors. All of Yuri’s students were young and rambunctious, but Yuri wasn’t lying when he said he enjoyed teaching them.

He only had two groups of kids to teach on Sundays and afterwards he had the rink to himself. Yuri liked to copy routines he’d seen online. It felt almost childish to do that, but Yuri couldn’t deny how much he enjoyed it. Besides, now that he had a desk job, this was just about his only form of exercise and it was starting to show around his waistline.

The sun was setting by the time Yuri left the rink. He walked home a little slower than usual, stopping to admire the sunset over the ocean. It was a view he didn’t think he’d ever get sick of, but the pause in his routine stirred up unwelcome thoughts.

He missed his old dog. He missed Phichit’s funny stories. He missed being in school even though he loved not being in school in equal measure. He even missed the crowded city where he used to live in the Northern Kingdom. Maybe he should think about looking for work in Tokyo?

Yuri hung his head.

No. Moving away again wasn’t the right answer. Not really. It’d just be running away from the empty feeling that haunted him. There was something else Yuri needed in his life, but he had no idea what it could be.

Yuri was still deep in thought when he arrived home. He greeted his family and headed straight to the onsen for a much needed soak. Yuri slipped into the water and sighed. The water helped ease his tension. He leaned against the side and closed his eyes, content listening to the wind rustling through leaves and crickets singing.

A door opened and closed.

Yuri lazily opened one eye and then the other. Before him stood a foreigner. An almost dead ringer for Prince Victor, no less. Tall, dark hair, and very naked. The foreigner didn’t even bother trying to cover himself up with the small towel he held in his hand.

Yuri flushed, but the man beamed down at him.

“Yuri! Is that really you?”

“Wha? Yes? I’m Yuri,” Yuri sputtered. “Who told you my name?”

The man cocked his head to the side. “You did. About five months ago.”

“I did?”

The man chuckled, but he didn’t look very happy. “At Bar Sapphire. Was I that forgettable?”

Yuri wondered how the man could ask such a question. Who could ever forget someone that looked like he did?

“I’m Alex. Alex Vasiliev,” the man offered before slipping into the water.

“Alex Vasiliev.” Yuri repeated. That name did sound familiar... Alex Vasiliev. Alex, a Victor-lookalike. No, wait. Alex, the Victor-Impersonator!

“Alex!” Yuri said again. “I... Um, that is... I don’t remember much. You were an impersonator?”

“I am,” Alex sing-songed. “Remember anything else?”

“Uh. W-We talked for a while.”

“And I bought you a drink,” Alex supplied.

That did sound sort of familiar. Yuri could almost remember the taste of something sweet. “Yeah. And then we…danced? I think.” Yuri shook his head. “Sorry. I had, um, a lot to drink.”

Alex laughed. “Do you always drink that much?”

Yuri fought down his rising panic. “No! No. I’d just had a really bad day and my roommate thought we should go out for drinks.”

“Ah. That sounds fun.”

“Yeah…” Yuri said. He did miss Phichit’s lively company. “So, um, why are you here, Alex?”

“Vacation!”

“What? Really? All the way out here?”

Alex shrugged. “I was nearby and heard there was a really good onsen here. Turns out the rumors were true.”

“Oh. Thank you. My parents will be happy to hear it.”

Alex hummed happily. “I can’t believe we met again,” Alex said suddenly.

Yuri had to agree. “What are the odds?” he said. “This is a pretty small town too. I hope you find enough to do to keep you entertained. How long are you staying?”

“I’ll be here for one week,” Alex replied. “Oh! How about you show me around town tomorrow? That’d be so much fun!”

It’d definitely be more fun than work. “Sorry, Alex. I can’t do that.”

Alex looked like he’d been slapped and Yuri rushed to explain.

“No. I mean. I wouldn’t mind showing you around, but I have to work tomorrow and I probably won’t be home until late.”

Alex pouted. “Hrmph. Can’t you take the day off?”

Yuri choked on a laugh. Was this guy serious?

“Of course not,” Yuri replied.

“Hmm.” Alex looked off into the distance for a moment. Suddenly his blue eyes locked back onto Yuri. “Okay. How about you text me when you’re about arrive home and we can meet for dinner?”

“Oh. Well, I guess we could do that,” Yuri said.

“Great!” Alex sprang up and grabbed Yuri’s hand, pulling him out of the onsen. “Let’s go exchange numbers right now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing Not-Victor. I'm glad he amused so many. :D Thank you all for the nice comments! BTW, I just checked my Word doc and I've got about 5-6 other chapters written right now. I just have to edit them so it shouldn't be too long in between updates.


	4. Chapter 4

Was this a date?

When someone asks you to meet him for dinner…it’s usually a date, right? Ugh. It was so frustrating. Why couldn’t he figure out something so simple?

Yuri didn’t remember much from the night he met Alex, but Yuri distinctly remembered being left with a positive impression of the man. He was somewhat embarrassed that Alex had seen him so drunk. Luckily it seemed that despite his missing memories, Yuri must’ve not done anything too insane. Otherwise Alex wouldn’t be so friendly with him.

And Alex was very friendly.

Actually, Alex’s attention was a little overwhelming. Yuri had only barely managed to convince the man that they couldn’t stay up talking all night. The pout that Alex gave after he sulked back to his room was kind of cute though.

Yuri’s stomach filled with butterflies. Okay, so he had to admit that he wasn’t opposed to the idea of a date or anything. It was just…

Yuri sighed.

He shuffled around the convenience store and collected the few things his parents asked him to pick up on the way home. He paused in front of a rack of magazines. There was a locally made brochure about sightseeing in Hasetsu sitting on the top shelf. It was even in English. Maybe Alex would like it?

Yuri placed the brochure in his basket and turned to leave, but a magazine featuring Prince Victor caught his eye.

EXCLUSIVE ON PRINCE VICTOR’S BRIDE-TO-BE!

Yuri picked up the magazine and scanned it for the headline article.

_Our sources have discovered that Prince Victor’s rumored bride-to-be might very well be Princess Sara from the small kingdom of Stivalia. She was recently seen sporting a new diamond necklace from a company known to be one of Prince Victor’s personal favorites…_

Yuri hesitated before placing the magazine back on the shelf. Anything with Prince Victor on it used to mean an automatic purchase from him. It felt strange to leave the store without it, but that’s exactly what he did.

He silently hoped that Prince Victor had found someone he loved.

 

~  ~  ~

 

Alex was waiting for Yuri at the entrance to Yu-topia. He was dressed in what looked like designer clothes.

…This was totally a date. Yuri’s smile momentarily froze on his face.

“Hi, Yuri! I’m so hungry,” Alex said. “Where’s your favorite place to eat? Let’s go there.”

“A-Actually, my mom’s cooking is my favorite.”

Alex looked surprised, but he shook it off quickly and grinned. “Then we’ll eat here! And then… Hmm. How about we go to that castle up on the hill?”

“It’s not actually a castle. Oh, here. I got you something at the store that’ll explain it better.” Yuri fished out the brochure from the plastic bag he was carrying. “Maybe this will also help you find something to do when I can’t show you around?”

“Wow! Thank you, Yuri.”

Alex practically danced with joy from the simple gift. It was ridiculous to get so happy over such a simple thing, but it was kind of endearing too. Yuri was envious of Alex’s boundless optimism. Even while they dined together with Yuri’s family, Alex’s enthusiasm attracted attention. Everyone was so charmed by the man who gushed over everything he was served. Alex was magnetic. It was so easy to get swept along with his moods. By the time dinner ended, Yuri realized he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun.

As promised, Yuri led the way to the castle after dinner. Alex walked shoulder to shoulder and chatted almost the entire way. He asked Yuri about the inn, what growing up in Hasetsu was like, what Yuri majored in, and more. It was just small talk, but it wasn’t as awkward as Yuri typically found small talk to be. Maybe it was because Alex was the one talking?

Yuri didn’t have time to dwell on the thought. When they reached the castle, Alex was immediately distracted.

“You can ice skate here?” Alex gaped.

“Yes. I teach a couple groups of kids on the weekend. Do you know how to skate, Alex? Did you want to try?”

“I’d love to skate,” Alex said readily.

They walked up to the front desk and Alex greeted Yuuko warmly. Yuri knew Yuuko wouldn’t be able to understand what Alex was saying though since Alex could only speak a handful of words in their language. Yuri opened his mouth to translate, but stopped when he saw Yuuko freeze up as she stared at them. Yuri suddenly remembered Yuuko’s obsession with Prince Victor. He rushed to explain.

“This is Alex! H-He’s a Victor impersonator,” Yuri said.

“Wow,” Yuuko said, reverence dripping from her voice. “He looks so much like him I can hardly believe it! Why didn’t you tell me you knew someone who looked like Prince Victor?”

Yuri stole a glance at Alex who was smiling dumbly as he looked around the room. Never had Yuri been so thankful for language barriers.

“Sorry, Yuuko. I actually only met him once before this. It was a few months back when I was still in school. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. Anyway, he just wants me to show him around town since he doesn’t speak the language. But since we’re here, I thought we could go skating.”

“Hmm? So you don’t know him very well, but you’re showing him around town?”

“Well, yeah. He’s, uh, a nice guy and all.”

“Oh?” Yuuko said with a sly smile.

Yuri could read too much in that smile. He blushed furiously while Yuuko went through the process of finding and renting them a pair of skates. She smirked the entire time. Yuri grabbed the skates and steered Alex into the rink as quickly as he could. Thankfully, the rink was empty since it was so close to closing time.

“She seems nice,” Alex commented.

“That was Yuuko. I’ve known her since we were kids,” Yuri said as he sat down.

Alex dropped onto the bench beside Yuri and began to swap his shoes for skates. “Really? Are you dating her?”

Yuri fumbled the skate he was holding. “No! S-She’s married… Has three kids. Actually, I’m surprised they’re not running around here right now.”

“Oh?” Alex said. He leaned in close and dropped his voice low enough to send shivers down Yuri’s spine. “Do you like her anyway?”

“N-No comment.”

Alex hummed a note, but his carefree attitude slipped for a moment and Yuri saw a strange look flicker across Alex’s face. If Yuri didn’t know better, Alex looked disappointed. The moment passed quickly though. Alex sprang up from the bench and admired his borrowed skates. Yuri finished tying his laces and led the way onto the rink. He immediately switched into teacher mode.

“Okay Alex. You said you’ve gone skating before. So I won’t need to help you?”

Alex cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips. “It’s been too long since I’ve been ice skating. Won’t you help me, Yuri?”

Yuri felt like he was stepping into a trap, but he dutifully held out his hands. “Alright then. Just take my hands, I’ll guide you through the first steps.”

Alex’s hands were warm. Barely any callouses on them. Yuri tried his best not to focus on how Alex’s touch made him feel.

They circled the rink in stuttering glides. Alex stumbled several times. A few too many times for someone who’d been skating before.

“Alex. You’re a better skater than this, aren’t you?” Yuri said after a couple fruitless laps.

Alex chuckled. “I thought I’d tease you a bit since you wouldn’t answer my question earlier.” Alex grabbed one of Yuri’s hands and pulled him along, gliding smoothly across the ice.

“I knew you were faking it,” Yuri grumbled.

“Sorry, Yuri. I like holding your hands though. We should do it more often.”

Yuri almost tripped over his own feet. He tried to dislodge his hand, but only succeeded in making Alex stop and turn to look at him.

“We don’t… I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yuri said. “Please stop.”

Alex let go of Yuri’s hand. His smile faded away. “If that’s what you want,” he said quietly.

Oh no, no, no, no. Yuri didn’t want to be the cause of that look on Alex’s face. “It’s not that… Um. Well, we just met each other again, you know? And…” He swallowed thickly and looked down. He didn’t have the courage to look Alex in the eyes. “You’ll have to go home soon and who knows when or if we’ll ever see each other again. And in any case, I’m so busy with work I barely have time to be here with you right now. Maybe none of that matters to you, but it matters to me so…I’m sorry.”

When there was no response from Alex, Yuri risked a glance. He looked up in time to see Alex rush past him. Stunned, Yuri didn’t react for a moment. He shook his head and spun around, catching up to Alex. But Alex didn’t acknowledge his presence. Not knowing what else to do, Yuri followed silently behind. They completed three laps in silence before Alex finally spoke up.

“Have you ever wished you lived a different life?”

Yuri wasn’t sure he heard the question correctly at first. It was such an oddly personal question and so far afield from Alex’s usual flirtations that Yuri struggled to reply. “I guess I’m curious what my life would be like if I made different decisions than the ones I did make. I don’t know if I’d want a different life though. I like it here. Why do you ask?”

Alex shrugged. “My family is kind of overbearing. They mean well, but they want me to have my life figured out already. It’d be nice if I could do that, but I can’t stop thinking about missed opportunities.”

“Like what?”

“Everything! Places I’ve never had a chance to visit. Hobbies I gave up on. Words I wished I said.” Alex spun a neat circle around Yuri. “And people I didn’t have enough time to be with.”

Yuri’s face heated. He said the only thing he could think to say.

“I’m sorry.”

 

~  ~  ~

 

Alex didn’t bring up the awkwardness at the ice rink again. Yuri was thankful, but also upset with himself. He had a feeling other people wouldn’t have made such a big deal out of holding hands. Would’ve just gone with the flow and had a few fun nights before parting. Maybe starting a long-distance relationship. Maybe not.

Yuri knew that and yet he couldn’t accept it. To open himself up to someone else was just about the scariest thing he could think of and it ate him up. It kept eating away at him until he quietly confessed his anxiousness to Alex the next night after one too many drinks. Yuri wasn’t drunk. Just buzzed enough to talk freely in a way that he normally found very hard to do. He wanted to tell Alex anyway. Try to explain to him how weak Yuri’s own thoughts could make him feel and how much he hated that. How he was afraid of people judging him for this. He wasn’t sure he made a lot of sense, but Alex smiled gently in response.

“You don’t have to feel guilty,” Alex said. “You’re not weak for having doubts. I was pushing too much anyway.”

They were such simple words, but they felt like a balm to Yuri’s restless mind.

The rest of the week passed by quickly. Alex was always there at the front door ready to greet Yuri no matter how late Yuri returned from work. They ate as many meals together as possible and sometimes Yuri stayed up far too late talking and drinking with the amusing foreign guest. He savored every moment all while knowing that it wouldn’t last.

Alex made two announcements on Saturday morning. First he said that he’d be leaving Monday. Then Alex said that he wanted to watch Yuri teach his skating classes on Sunday.

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do on your last day of vacation? It’s noisy and probably pretty boring to watch,” Yuri said. He was decidedly not trying to think about how empty the house was going to feel soon.

“Yep! That’s exactly what I want to do. I’ll even help you out,” Alex said.

Yuri laughed. “I don’t know. How good are you with kids?”

Mari’s voice called out from the other side of the room, interrupting their conversation. “Yuri! Prince Victor is on TV.”

Yuri spun around in his seat to face the television. Prince Victor was waving to a crowd he couldn’t see.

“Today the Northern Kingdom confirmed Prince Victor’s engagement to Princess Sara,” the news reporter said. “Although their wedding date is yet to be announced, the palace did announce the dates of three celebratory balls.”

Alex scoffed. “Were they even dating?”

“I wondered that too,” Yuri said with a nod. “Prince Victor threw so many balls before. I remember most people in the kingdom assumed he was looking for a partner at them. I guess that was never confirmed though.”

“It wasn’t. I think the palace spokeswoman said they were for some obscure royal family member’s birthday or anniversary each time,” Alex replied.

“I hope that’s true,” Yuri said.

“Why is that?” Alex asked.

Yuri shrugged, attempting to be more casual about the subject than he really felt. “It’d be too sad if the prince ended up in an arranged marriage with someone he doesn’t know.”

“You want him to have a happily-ever-after kind of marriage then?” Alex teased.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Yuri huffed.

Alex threw his arms around Yuri in a tight embrace. “You’re so nice, Yuri!”

Yuri flailed. “I am not! This is just normal!”

But Alex only laughed and soon Yuri was laughing with him.


	5. Chapter 5

“Good morning, everyone.”

“Good morning, Mister Katsuki,” the pint-sized class replied as one.

“Um. Okay. So we have a guest today,” Yuri said. He gestured to the man beside him and on cue, Alex waved and smiled at the kids. “Our guest’s name is Mister Vasi…” On second thought, there was no way the kids would be able to pronounce Alex’s surname. It was going to be hard enough for them to pronounce his first name. “Our guest’s name is Alex. Just call him Alex. He can’t speak our language, but if you know some English, you can try practicing with him while we skate. Okay?”

The kids nodded and a little boy shouted out, “dog!”

Alex laughed. “Dog! Woof!” he said.

That’s all it took to win over the kids. Soon they were chasing Alex all around the rink while they yelled out random English words.

“House!”

“Cat!”

“Tree!”

“Water!”

The second class was just as riotous as the first, but Yuri smiled the entire time. Having Alex around for skating class was just as fun as it was exhausting.

“You do that every week?” Alex asked after they finished saying goodbye to Yuuko.

“Every week,” Yuri replied. “Did you have fun?”

“Of course! I love skating with you. The kids were really funny too.”

Yuri bowed his head to hide his blush. “I had fun too,” he said, but that feeling slipped away from his grasp as they turned to leave. The walk home was too short. There just wasn’t enough time left.

“Let’s go to the beach,” Alex said as they crossed the bridge. He smiled bright as the sun. “We’ve still got some daylight left and it’s pretty warm. We shouldn’t waste today.”

Yuri couldn’t agree more. They picked up something to eat and ran off to find a good spot for their impromptu picnic dinner. They found an empty area with ease and sat down side by side on the warm sand.

“Sorry that your last dinner here is just convenience store food,” Yuri said as he passed Alex an onigiri.

Alex accepted the riceball with a smile. “It’s perfect,” he said.

They passed the time talking about everything and nothing. Acting as if Alex wasn’t going away. Like he’d still be there waiting to welcome Yuri home tomorrow night. It hurt, but what else could they do? They both knew Alex needed to go home. He couldn’t stay here and Yuri couldn’t go with him which is something he could barely believe. The wanting to go with Alex part, that is. In Yuri’s wildest dreams, he quits his job and runs off with Alex and everything works out perfectly.

But that was a dream and reality was much more unforgiving. Quitting his job meant giving up on the secure future he was working towards making for himself and the inn. Yuri didn’t have any interest in running the inn, but his parents loved the place and he knew he’d be crushed if it ever had to close. He couldn’t leave. Not after working so hard at making a stable life here in Hasetsu.

A splash of cold water kicked Yuri out of his fog. He looked up to see Alex standing ankle deep in the sea, grinning like he was daring Yuri to fight back. The ensuing water fight left them so soaked Yuri’s mother made them stand outside to towel off before she’d let them inside. They enjoyed one last soak in the onsen together and before Yuri knew it, the day was over.

“My flight leaves in the morning,” Alex said. His voice was unusually soft. “But I should be able to see you before you leave for work.”

Yuri nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning then. Good night, Alex.”

“Good night, Yuri.”

With great difficulty, Yuri turned and went to his bedroom. He barely slept that night. He woke up with bags under his eyes, but Yuri was determined to look presentable that morning. He needed to. It was probably going to be the last time he ever saw Alex. So he needed to…

Well. What did he really need to do other than say goodbye? The truth made Yuri’s heart hurt. No one with blue eyes would welcome Yuri home tonight. No one would walk with him to the ice rink. No one would tell Yuri funny stories about the things he’d done that day. Yuri descended the stairs with a heavy heart. He found Alex sitting outside beside a stack of suitcases.

“Good morning,” Yuri mumbled.

Alex sprang to his feet. “Morning, Yuri!” he said, but his energy quickly drained.

They faced each other in silence.

“D-Do you need any help with those?” Yuri eventually asked.

“The suitcases? No. I have a taxi on the way,” Alex said.

“Oh. Okay.” This was so awkward. “Um. I hope you had fun on your trip.”

Alex smiled, but not with as much enthusiasm as he usually did. “Of course. It was fun because I got to see you again.”

Yuri ducked his head. “Oh.”

“I guess this is goodbye then?”

Yuri nodded, but didn’t raise his head.

“Hey, Yuri? I hope you find your happily-ever-after too.”

Yuri looked up. It took him a second to remember what Alex meant. That conversation seemed like it took place years ago. How could it have only been a couple days?

“You too,” Yuri said. “I hope you…” He stopped. He didn’t know what to say or how to say it so he stepped close to Alex and slid his arms around the taller man.

Alex returned the hug almost immediately. “What’s this for?” Alex whispered.

“Just to thank you, I guess. Thank you for staying here. It was fun. I… I’ll miss it,” Yuri said because he couldn’t bring himself to say what he really wanted to say. _I’ll miss you._

Alex’s arms tightened a fraction. “Me too.”

They stayed like that for a moment, but eventually Alex let go so Yuri did too.

“Yuri, will you take a picture with me?”

“Huh? Right now?”

Alex produced a phone from his pocket and Yuri couldn’t help but notice there was a Hasetsu Castle sticker on the back.

“Right now,” Alex said. He threw an arm around Yuri’s shoulder and pulled him close. Yuri put his arm around Alex’s shoulder and smiled at the camera.

Alex pressed a button and the phone made a click noise. They checked the photo together.

“It’s perfect,” Alex said. “Thanks, Yuri.”

It was far from a perfect photo. Yuri looked exhausted and Alex’s typically neat hair was sprouting bedhead. The photo was badly cropped and the lighting was a little orange, but it didn’t matter. In that photo they would always be together and they’d always be smiling.

“Um. Will you email the photo to me too?” Yuri asked.

“I’ll send it to you right now,” Alex said. “So don’t forget about me this time.”

Yuri laughed. “I won’t forget you ever again.”

 

~  ~  ~

 

Yuri sidled left, then right. He raised his phone just a little higher and finally snapped a photo. He bounded into the shade and double checked it. It wasn’t bad. A little overexposed, but still nice. The blue of the sea contrasted beautifully with the fire colored autumn leaves. He opened up a new email and typed:

_Look! The leaves have started changing colors._

Yuri attached the photo and hit send. It should be around dinner time over there so Yuri could reasonably expect a reply soon. At least he was pretty sure. Sometimes Alex couldn’t respond for long periods of time due to his job.

The wind picked up and Yuri decided to head back home for lunch. His phone buzzed with a message as he reached the front door.

_It’s beautiful! I wish I was there right now. T_T I’m stuck with this view today._

Attached was a picture of rain pooling on brown leaves stuck to a sidewalk. Yuri thought he could almost make out Alex’s figure reflected in the water. It must be freezing there. Probably one of the last rainfalls before the snow came.

_Bad luck. Are you somewhere warm at least?_

The next reply came quickly.

_I am! Thank you for worrying about me. <3_

There was another picture attached. This one was of Alex’s hand holding up a shot of vodka in front of a fireplace. Yuri laughed. He wanted to keep emailing, but his stomach was growling too loudly to ignore. He told Alex that they’d have to talk later and Alex pouted like usual, but eventually acquiesced.

It’d been almost two months since Alex left, but Yuri was happy they somehow managed to keep up a regular correspondence. It was mostly emails or short texts since Alex had such a crazy schedule. Yuri was ashamed to admit how much he looked forward to those emails though.

“Oh Yuri, I heard they’re going to air something about Prince Victor tomorrow.”

Yuri looked up at the sound of his mother’s voice. “Oh, really? What time will it be on?”

“It’ll be on around this time tomorrow. I’ll make sure we have the big TV turned to it when it airs.”

“Thanks, mom.”

Yuri was silently thankful that his company was letting him work from home for the next week. Not that they had much of a choice though since they were remodeling his side of the office. When the remolding was over, work was likely going to pick up too so Yuri was determined to enjoy the extra time he had at home. Even better if he could watch something about Prince Victor while he worked.

The next day, Yuri set up his company laptop on one of the tables in the dining area and built a temporary workstation. There’d been no text from Alex so far, but that wasn’t unusual. Yuri decided to text him after lunch.

Yuri’s mother flipped through the channels, muttering to herself. “I thought it was going to be on channel three but… Hmm. Oh! Here it is!”

“It’s Prince Victor’s first public appearance with his fiancée,” the voiceover said.

An image of Princess Sara filled the screen. She glowed with happiness. The camera zoomed out and Prince Victor came into view. He was smiling gently as his fiancée said something to him.

“Their romantic day includes a visit to a chocolatier which will be followed by dinner and dancing at…”

Yuri started to tune out the words. Maybe it was because Alex looked so similar to the prince, but it was almost too hard to watch Prince Victor escort the princess down the street. Yuri couldn’t help but remember what Alex had said about happily-ever-afters. Had Alex started dating anyone? They never really talked about things like that. Yuri knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help the feeling of jealousy that bubbled to the surface at just the thought of Alex being with someone else right now.

On TV, Prince Victor and Princess Sara arrived at the chocolatier and began browsing.

“Oh, that all looks so good,” Yuri’s mother said.

“Yeah. You should tell dad to buy you some.”

“Maybe I will,” Yuri’s mom said brightly. She turned around. “Dear? Where are you?” She disappeared into the kitchen as she called out.

Yuri chuckled and turned his attention back to the TV. The royal couple were bent over a display case, laughing at something Yuri couldn’t quite make out. The camera was keeping a respectful distance, surprisingly. They must have had some pretty stringent rules for broadcasting even a part of their date.

Prince Victor took out his phone and snapped a photo. More laughing. Prince Victor pointed at the display and a uniformed employee rushed to package up whatever it was that amused them so much.

Yuri’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it and saw a new email from Alex.

_I saw this today and thought of you! ^^_

The attached photo showed a chocolate poodle surrounded by mint chocolate hearts. Yuri looked back to the TV.

The prince and princess were just leaving the chocolate shop. They stepped outside and opened the box just enough to reach inside. Both of them took out a mint chocolate heart.

“Yuri? What’s wrong?”

Yuri looked up at his mother’s concerned face. He hadn’t even heard her come back into the room. Hot tears poured down his cheeks. He couldn’t think of anything to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me for ending the chapter like this. D: I promise I'll try to edit the next chapter quickly so you won't be hanging out in cliffhangerville for long.


	6. Chapter 6

_Alex: It snowed overnight but it was almost all melted by the time I woke up so no photo. :p_

_Alex: I have work most of the day today so I probably won’t be able to check my phone until late!_

_Alex: How’s the weather over there? Have you taken any more pictures of the leaves? <3_

_Alex: I’ve got some free time right now. Are you there?_

_Alex: Hi Yuri! It’s been awhile. I hope you’re not overworking yourself. Remember to take it easy!_

_Alex: Sorry. Have I been texting you too much? Am I annoying you? Please tell me._

_Alex: Please let me know you’re ok? I’m worried._

 

Yuri sighed aloud and tossed his phone on his bed. How long had it been since he replied to any text message? Two weeks? Almost three weeks?

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to reply. He did want to reply. He knew he had to say something. Anything.

The problem was that Yuri had so much to say that it all got jammed up in his head every time he looked at his phone. It felt cruel to ignore the texts, the emails, the phone calls…but Yuri wasn’t even sure who he was talking to anymore. In Yuri’s mind, Alex was still behind the phone and Yuri desperately wanted to connect with that person again.

He knew whatever he did next was important. The decision weighed on him like stones. He knew his moodiness was taking a toll on everyone around him. Even Phichit was worried the last time they talked and that almost crushed Yuri because he hadn’t been able to confess what happened. Not yet at least. Not until Yuri could sort out all the thoughts in his head. Luckily, Phichit was as understanding as ever.

“At least there’s someone I can still trust,” Yuri mumbled to himself. He needed to do something. He needed to confront Alex. Especially after that last text Alex sent.

No. It wasn’t Alex, was it?

Yuri picked up his phone and after a few false starts, sent off a simple text.

_Yuri: Please call me when you can._

Yuri sighed. It’d probably be awhile before he got a call back. It was about five in the morning there right now…

His phone rang and Yuri flailed and dropped it. The phone bounced off the bed and onto the floor. Alex’s name glowed on the screen. Yuri sat down next to his phone and braced himself for a second before he answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Yuri!”

The familiar voice sounded so strange to Yuri’s ears.

“Yuri, are you okay? I was so worried! I thought maybe something happened, like maybe you were in an accident or—“

Alex was rambling like he did whenever he got swept up in an idea. It was so normal. So expected. Yuri knew Alex and knew how Alex would react.

Yuri squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He couldn’t keep thinking like this. “No. Nothing like that happened,” Yuri said. “Isn’t it really early there?”

“Yeah, it is. Don’t worry about it though.”

“Oh. OK.” Yuri swallowed. This wasn’t going to be easy. “Alex?”

“Yes?”

Yuri flinched. “Is it really you?”

“What do you mean?” Alex chuckled softly. “No one else has access to my phone so it can only be me.”

Yuri shook his head. “That’s not…what I mean.” He bit his trembling lip. “You know what I mean. You’re not Alex, are you?”

There was a hushed sound of someone breathing in sharply. The next words were so soft Yuri almost missed them.

“You figured it out?”

Yuri slumped against the back of his bed. “That picture of the chocolate. They televised your date and I was watching you. I was watching you send me a picture while you were on a date.”

“That wasn’t…”

“How could you do that?” Yuri’s voice cracked, but he couldn’t stay silent. “You lied so much and I believed everything you said.”

“Yuri, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care if you’re sorry! I don’t even know who you are. I want Alex back!”

“I am Alex!”

“You’re Prince Victor!”

Prince Victor sighed. “I am, but… Ugh. I don’t want to talk to you like this.”

Yuri gritted his teeth. “Then let’s stop. Congratulations on your engagement, your highness. Goodbye.” Yuri disconnected the call and turned off his phone.

Prince Victor hadn’t even made up an excuse. How long was he going to keep up the act? Would he have kept sending pictures to Yuri even after he was married? Would he have still sent texts with heart emojis? Would he have shown up in disguise at the inn next summer and would Yuri have let his guard down?

Yuri knew he would’ve done it. Yuri would’ve told Alex how he really felt if he ever saw Alex again. Would’ve made a fool of himself in front of the man he used to admire.

Yuri climbed into his bed and buried himself in the sheets. He didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t want to think about how badly it could’ve all ended. At least it was over now. He didn’t have to care about Alex any more.

The thought should’ve comforted him, but instead he had to fight back tears. No matter what, Yuri didn’t want to cry over someone that never existed. He fought that battle all through the night, only giving up when the first rays of the dawn seeped into his room. No sleep meant that Yuri had to survive work with the help of energy drinks he didn’t actually like drinking. He’d had so many by the end of the day, he was worried his heart was beating too fast. Probably just another unreasonable fear though. He hoped so at least.

Yuri decided to go for a run that night. The temperature had gotten cooler now, especially at night, but that didn’t matter. He desperately needed the distraction. It was about time he got back into the habit of jogging again anyway. He was so lost in thought after leaving work that he was surprised when he realized he’d already made it back to the inn. His mother was outside, sweeping the entrance area.

“Welcome home, Yuri.”

“Thanks, mom. I’m going to go for a run.”

“This late?”

Yuri paused. For the first time it hit him that it was late. By the time he changed his clothes, finished running, got back and bathed, it’d probably be midnight by the time he crawled into bed. Then he’d be up again a handful of hours later because his boss wanted everyone to come in early this week…

Yuri sighed. “Yes. I just need to run tonight.” The time didn’t matter. He was going to be exhausted either way.

Yuri’s mother nodded. “Okay. Have fun, dear. Be careful.”

That was as close as his mother would ever get to acknowledging Yuri’s strange mood. They both knew Yuri needed time and distance. Yuri mumbled reassurances to his mother and sprinted up to his room to change.

It was late by the time he went to bed that night, but the run helped Yuri fall asleep so he decided to do it again the next day and the day after that. At least until he could stop thinking of Alex’s face.

 

~   ~   ~

 

Mari was waiting for Yuri just outside the train station the next evening.

“You forgot to turn on your phone,” she grumbled. A cigarette hung from her lips, burned down almost to the filter.

“Sorry,” Yuri said. He hadn’t forgotten to turn on his phone, but he had a feeling his sister knew that fact somehow.

“Whatever. You’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

“Uh, did I forget to do something?”

“You’ll see,” Mari said.

“Huh?”

Mari discarded her old cigarette and immediately lit a new one. She moved to the sidewalk and Yuri rushed to follow.

“You’re seriously not going to tell me anything?”

Mari chuckled. “Nope.” She changed the subject and spent the rest of the walk home distracting Yuri with mundane talk about how the inn was doing. When they finally got to the door, Mari paused.

“Hey. I guess I should tell you one thing.”

“What is it?” Yuri asked.

“He didn’t make me keep this a surprise.”

“Who are you talking about?” Yuri said, but Mari swung open the door and inside was the answer.

“Yuri. Can we talk?” Prince Victor said. His voice was different. Not like the one Alex usually used. This voice was commanding even though he hadn’t issued a command. It was deeper and clearer too. His appearance had changed to the one Yuri had in all his posters. Perfectly dressed. Hair perfectly styled. Aloof and beautiful, but so out of reach. He was like a roped off marble statue at an art museum.

This wasn’t Alex with his bubbly speech and dark hair. His silly expressions and exaggerated way of doing everything. His open friendliness and affection that irresistibly drew people to him.

Yuri swallowed thickly. They didn’t seem like the same person at all and yet he knew the truth.

“Oh! Can we talk in the onsen? I missed it so much!” Prince Victor bounced on the balls of his feet and smiled a familiar carefree grin.

It hit Yuri like a freight train. There was no denying it now. Prince Victor was Alex.

Yuri rubbed his eyes. “I can’t believe this,” he mumbled.

Suddenly Prince Victor was inches away from him. Yuri jumped.

“I want to explain everything,” Prince Victor said in a low voice. “And apologize. Will you let me do that much, Yuri?”

Yuri suppressed a whimper. “F-Fine,” he stammered. Prince Victor smiled so sweetly that Yuri had to avert his eyes. They landed on the space over the prince’s shoulder where Yuri saw his entire family and a few regular guests openly staring at them.

Yuri squeaked. “Not in the onsen though. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Prince Victor put a finger to his lips. “Hmm. OK, but it probably won’t be long before the paparazzi figure out where I am…”

“PAPARAZZI?” Yuri shouted.

“I didn’t really try to cover my tracks this time,” Prince Victor shrugged. “So we probably shouldn’t go anywhere outside.”

So where could they go? The answer was simple and yet the invitation was hard to form into words. The way Prince Victor’s eyes sparkled as Yuri led the way to his bedroom made Yuri feel things he wasn’t ready to feel.

Yuri was never so happy that he’d taken down all his posters.

Yuri offered the prince his choice of the only two seats in his room and of course the prince chose Yuri’s bed. He still looked entirely too happy for someone who came to apologize.

Yuri took a seat at his desk and faced Prince Victor.

“You look so tired, Yuri. Do you want to take a nap first?” Prince Victor patted the bed.

Yuri shook his head in disbelief. “No, thank you. I just want to get this over with. Uh. Your majesty.”

Prince Victor frowned. “Call me Victor.”

Yuri held up his hands. “No! I couldn’t possibly do that.”

Prince Victor pouted in the same way Alex used to pout. Yuri slowly dropped his hands to his knees.

“How was I so blind?” Yuri said.

“It wasn’t just you,” Prince Victor said. “The people have already formed an idea of who I am based solely on formal TV appearances. When they meet me in person and my attitude isn’t like the proper prince they expect, then it’s easier for them to believe what I tell them. That I just so happen to look like the prince. No one expects the prince to be roaming around in the same night club or restaurant they’re currently at either. It’d be crazy. A prince would always be somewhere else. Somewhere classier than they could ever afford. He’d never want to go to an ordinary club in the business district. Those preconceived notions are what I banked on. Well, that and some hair dye and contacts.”

“Contacts?”

Prince Victor laughed, but it sounded hollow. “Another thing you forgot. I had brown eyes at the club. I didn’t wear my contacts here as a hint. I was hoping to surprise you, but you ended up surprising me all over again.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Yuri said. “How could I ever surprise you?”

“The cute, flustered waiter who ruined one of my five hundred dollar shirts turned out to be smart, funny, and an amazing dancer. That’s how.”

Yuri’s brain halted at ‘cute’ and completely derailed at ‘one of my five hundred dollar shirts.’ It still hadn’t recovered by the time Victor finished his sentence.

“Are you okay, Yuri?”

Yuri looked up. “One? One of your f-five hund…” He stopped mid-sentence, fighting back the sudden urge to hyperventilate. “I mean, wait. You remember that? No. Of course you would.”

Prince Victor waved a hand. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not! I’m so sorry, your majesty!”

That earned another pout.

“I’ll pay you back for the shirt! I promise. Can I make payments though? I don’t really have the money on hand…”

“No.”

Yuri froze. “O-Oh. I see,” he said. His wild-eyed gaze drifted downward.

Prince Victor sighed. “I don’t care about the shirt. I spent more than that on private detectives just trying to find you again.”

Yuri straightened in his chair. “Excuse me?”

“Well, your friend dragged you out of the club after he saw you stripping with my friend Chris.”

Yuri’s scream died in his throat, drowned out by a rush of embarrassment. Prince Victor continued on as if he hadn’t noticed.

“I didn’t get the chance to find out much else besides your name, you were a student, and that your family ran an inn. Much later, I found out you weren’t even a citizen of my country. I had to find an excuse to show up at your door and I had to do it in disguise with a bunch of bodyguards also in disguise.”

“What? You had bodyguards here? I don’t remember seeing them.”

Prince Victor smiled politely, but it was clear he was amused. “You don’t remember the unusual number of foreigners that checked into Yu-topia around the same time I did?”

Yuri tried to remember, but most of his memories of that time were clouded with thoughts of Alex. “No, I don’t. I had a guest who kept distracting me at that time.”

“I was hoping for the chance to distract you even more at the time.”

Yuri blushed. “Were you ever going to tell me your real name?”

Prince Victor inclined his head. “Yes and no.”

Yuri started. “WHA-“

The prince quickly cut him off. “I was trying to find the right time, but you made it clear so quickly that you didn’t want anything. You didn’t even think we’d see each other again. I thought you might be right about that, all things considered. So I didn’t bother telling you before I left. My week here was just going to be a happy memory.” He smiled bitterly. “Sorry I kept emailing you.”

Yuri wanted to tell him that it was fine. He looked forward to every text and email he received. But now those memories were tainted.

“You’re engaged,” Yuri said and Prince Victor winced.

“It wasn’t my idea,” Prince Victor said. “My parents only gave me a week to come here and speak with you. If I couldn’t convince you, then they planned to go ahead with an arranged marriage for me. Turns out they couldn’t even wait that long and started sending gifts to Sara while I was here.”

“The necklace,” Yuri muttered, remembering the magazine he’d seen. He bowed his head lower. He was afraid to ask his next question, but he knew he needed to do it. Yuri needed to hear the answer.

“Why?” Yuri asked breathlessly. “Why would you come all the way here?”

The prince tensed. “Why do you think?”

Yuri ducked his head to hide his blush. What he thought couldn’t be true.

He heard Prince Victor stand up and pad over to him. The prince dropped to his knees and slid his hands into Yuri’s hands. Yuri looked up and was shocked to see Prince Victor looking at him, a sad smile on his lips. But even more startling were his eyes, wet with unshed tears.

“Do you really not know, Yuri?”

Yuri melted. “Victor,” he said. His voice cracked as he fought back tears. He threw his arms around the prince and slid to the floor. Victor hugged him back, sighing contentedly into Yuri’s hair. They stayed that way for a long time.

“Please come back with me, Yuri.”

Yuri pushed away a fraction. Just enough to see Victor’s face. “But you’re engaged.”

“I’ll end it.”

“It can’t be that easy.”

Victor sighed and settled back onto the floor. Yuri immediately missed Victor’s warmth, but he settled back too.

“No, it won’t be,” Victor said. “But neither of us really want to marry each other. Sara’s hung up on some prince from a small southern kingdom. Her parents preferred seeing her engaged to a prince from a wealthier kingdom, but they aren’t so cruel that they’d go against her wishes if she said she wanted to marry someone else. The same goes for my family. This isn’t the middle ages. We don’t need to marry other royalty exclusively.”

Yuri had no idea. “But what if it doesn’t work out?” he blurted.

Victor looked at him, confusion painted across his face.

“Um. That is…” Yuri fought to put his racing thoughts in order. “What if your parents get mad at you anyway? And what will your citizens think if you break off an engagement with a famous princess just to bring home some nobody from a foreign land? And… And what if this doesn’t work. I mean, this thing you want to happen because I… I don’t…”

Victor’s eyes widened. “You don’t?” he prompted.

Yuri took a deep breath. He had to say it. It was time to be honest. He opened his mouth and pronounced every word with care. “I don’t know if I want to go with you.”

The prince’s gaze became stony. He said nothing.

Yuri’s heart tightened at the sight. He screwed it up. He had to explain before Victor came to the wrong conclusion. “It’s just that…” Yuri took a ragged breath. “If I go with you now, I’ll be quitting a secure job without notice. Yuuko will have to find someone to take over my skating classes. Then I’ll be in a country that probably won’t be happy with my presence.” _Because how could I ever be the kind of partner their prince deserves?_ Yuri left the last part unsaid.

Victor seemed to consider Yuri’s words. “I guess this is going to be harder than I thought.” He sighed dramatically and propped up his chin with his hands. “I wanted it to be a like a fairytale.”

Yuri almost laughed. “A prince showed up at my house. That’s pretty much a fairytale already.”

Victor sighed dramatically again and this time Yuri couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

“Real life isn’t very romantic,” Victor grumbled.

“I guess not,” Yuri agreed. He hesitated a moment before crawling over to sit next to Victor. Their shoulders brushed and Victor smiled gently at Yuri in response.

“At least tell me that you’d like to come back with me if you could?” Victor said.

Yuri knew he shouldn’t lie. Shouldn’t even sugarcoat it. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“Even more?” Victor moaned and pouted in a way that made Yuri laugh.

“Yes. Even more,” Yuri said. “I mean, you don’t actually want to marry someone you’ve only known a few months, right?”

Victor stared wide-eyed at Yuri as if the thought had never occurred to him. Yuri flushed.

“Shouldn’t we at least…you know? D-Date first?” Yuri stammered.

“I guess so,” Victor said. He didn’t sound mad. More amused than anything. He leaned into Yuri’s shoulder and Yuri responded in kind until their bodies were flush. They were quiet for a few moments, just enjoying each other’s presence. Eventually, Victor spoke again. “Tell me about what you’ve been doing,” Victor said.

Yuri told him about his job, his family, and his skating classes. Victor listened attentively, but Yuri knew he was just talking to fill the silence.

“Um. Is there anything else you want to know?” Yuri asked after he ran out of things to say.

Victor stared unseeing at the empty wall in front of them. “How long does it take to fall in love?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the long delay between updates! I really do intend to finish this fic though so thank you for sticking with me so far. I'll try my best to get back to updating regularly.


	7. Chapter 7

Yuri marked the passage of time by how long it’d been seen Victor left. Weeks had already passed by, but the memory of his visit was still fresh in Yuri’s mind.

Before leaving the safety of Yuri’s bedroom, the two had promised to get things in order and try to meet again as soon as possible. The only problem was that Victor wanted to give Yuri everything. He promised Yuri a suite in the palace where he could stay for however long he wanted. Or if that sounded like too much, how about a fancy hotel room? Victor would send a driver to pick up Yuri every day…

But it was all too much, too soon.

Victor backed down quickly and they settled on nothing more than a small promise to see each other again as soon as they could. That was it, but it felt like the safest thing to do. Even though there was a part of Yuri that didn’t want to take the safe option for once in his life.

But Yuri kept those thoughts bottled up inside him.

He agreed to meet Victor again and that was it. No grand plans. No romantic visions of the future. Victor didn’t complain though. He smiled sweetly enough to charm everyone in the inn and with a wave, he was gone.

_“How long does it take to fall in love?”_

Yuri’s face heated at the memory. It was a good question. He wished he could answer it. He wished he could put into words how he felt about Victor. Unfortunately he was no closer to answering Victor’s question now than he had been back when Victor asked it. He knew Victor wasn’t really looking for an answer though. Maybe.

Yuri’s family and friends had certainly made up their minds about Yuri’s relationship to Victor though.

“Why aren’t you there yet?” Phichit whined over the phone. “How many more weeks are you going to keep the prince waiting?”

“He’s not waiting for me,” Yuri insisted. “We just both have a lot to do and we haven’t figured things out yet…”

Phichit groaned. “Yuri. Just go and be happy already.”

“It’s not that easy. Please, Phichit. Trust me on this.”

Yuri’s friend rolled his eyes, but said, “Fine. Just promise me that I can be the photographer at your wedding?”

Yuri turned red. “We’re not getting married…”

“BUT-“

“…But obviously you’d be the photographer at my wedding. I don’t know anyone else who takes better pictures.”

Phichit beamed. “Did you see my last post?”

“About entering that photography contest? Yes! I know you’ll do great.”

“I hope so. Oh, by the way, one of the photos I entered was of you.”

“No. Phichit. Really?” Yuri moaned.

“Yeah, but it was a great picture! You shouldn’t feel embarrassed. Here, I’ll send it to you in a minute. I need to get going anyway.”

They said their goodbyes and a couple minutes after that, Yuri’s phone pinged with a new message. The photo was nice, he had to admit. He’d admired Phichit’s photography ever since they were roommates.

The photo was one of Yuri standing outside, tugging his scarf down while he stared up at the snow falling from the evening sky. His expression was filled with awe and a tiny smile was just beginning to blossom on his lips. The background was hazy, but still glittered like diamonds. It was a beautiful effect. It made the photo look magical even though Yuri was pretty sure Phichit took the photo while Yuri was watching a student try to do a backflip into a big snow bank from his second story dorm room window.

Yuri attached the photo to a new email.

_Yuri: Hi, Victor. Remember my old roommate? He took this picture of me and entered it into a photography contest recently. It was taken back when we lived in your kingdom._

Both he and Victor had been emailing and texting more frequently. Phone calls too. Not a day passed by without some sort of contact. Yuri’s eyes fell on the vase sitting on his desk. The roses were starting to wilt, but he was reluctant to throw them out. They arrived unexpectedly last week with a card explaining that they were from the palace’s greenhouse. Yuri felt like he was going to die of embarrassment, but he clutched the bouquet to his chest anyway while his mother scrambled to find a vase.

A ping from Yuri’s phone snapped him out of his daydreams.

_Victor: WOW! You look beautiful. Your friend will definitely win the contest with this. ^^ How are you doing today? I was thinking of going out tonight. What do you think of this outfit?_

The attached photo showed Victor standing in front of a mirror. He was in a dark, striped shirt. A hint of a smile played on his lips while his fingers teased open the buttons on his shirt. It was an inappropriate amount of skin to reveal to the public. …In Yuri’s opinion, at least.

_Yuri: You should button up your shirt before going out._

It took Victor a few minutes to respond.

_Victor: How about this shirt then? It’s my new favorite but the size is a little small~~ ;)_

The attachment was another photo taken in front of a mirror. A plain white shirt draped across the prince’s broad shoulders. Nothing else concealed his well sculpted torso. It took Yuri far too long to realize he was staring slack jawed at the photo. He snapped his mouth shut and suddenly a far distant memory snapped into focus. His fingers shook as he typed his reply.

_Yuri: IS THAT MY SHIRT?_

_Victor: I was saving it for you. I was afraid you’d lose it after that amazing performance you gave at the club._

_Yuri: You’re kidding me._

_Victor: ok I wanted a souvenir too_

_Yuri: give it back_

_Victor: I don’t think I will. <3 You’ll have to come here and take it from me._

Yuri stared at the screen, unsure how to respond. After another minute, his phone pinged again with another message from Victor.

_Victor: I’ll wait for you however long it takes._ _J_

Yuri fell back onto his bed. He’d been making Victor wait so long already and meanwhile, Victor had done so much after he arrived back in his kingdom.

The engagement and wedding plans had been publicly ended within the week. The press went insane and Yuri was happier than ever that he decided not to fly back to the Northern Kingdom with Victor the night he asked.

At first the news was awash in theories and rumors. Each more outlandish than the one before it. Affairs, secret marriages, a secret lovechild, alien mind control… It was all fair game apparently.

At least it didn’t last for long. The news moved on quickly after Princess Sara and her family made a sudden and disastrous visit to a certain small kingdom soon after the engagement ended. Pictures of Princess Sara arguing with her brother while Prince Seung-gil Lee looked on in annoyance were unavoidable for a couple weeks. It seemed like the public fight hurt the princess’s chances of securing a more favorable marriage. Favorable to Princess Sara, at least. Prince Seung-gil Lee never looked very happy with her company in any photo. Still, Yuri couldn’t help but silently wish the princess good luck.

Victor on the other hand was surprisingly silent in public. He told Yuri over the phone one night that he was avoiding the press for a while. He didn’t want to accidentally say something that’d start up a new round of rumors.

It was a good idea. Not only that, but it was considerate as well. Yuri didn’t need Victor to tell him how things would change once they were seen in public together. The world’s eyes would be on Yuri. The funny thing was that idea was no longer as frightening as it’d once been. Everyone would see Victor by Yuri’s side and they’d _know_.

Yuri was growing to like the idea more with each passing day.

Yuri looked back to the screen of his phone. Victor was waiting for him. Like always.

Victor’s last email left Yuri in awe, but it no longer felt unbelievable. Yuri knew what he wanted and for once in his life, Yuri wanted to take a chance. He called Victor before he could talk himself down. Victor picked up almost immediately.

“Hi, Yuri!”

“Victor. Is it really okay if I stay in a suite at the palace?”

“Yes. Of course,” Victor rushed to say. “Whenever you want it, I’ll make sure it’s ready for you.”

“It won’t seem weird? Some random foreigner hanging around the palace?”

“I’ll be by your side,” Victor said simply.

Yuri nodded to himself. “Next week.”

“Next week? What’s next week?”

“Next… Friday. No. Saturday. I’ll leave here on Saturday because the Saturday after that is your birthday, isn’t it?”

There was a short silence before Victor replied. “Yes,” he said. “You’ll stay for my birthday?”

“I-If you’ll let me.”

“Of course! I wish you could stay for New Year’s Eve too. There’s so many—“

“OK,” Yuri said, interrupting. “I’ll stay for New Year’s Eve too.”

“…Really? You won’t get in trouble at work?”

Yuri smiled. “No. Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you next week. OK, Victor?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone so much for the nice comments! Even if I don't have a chance to reply to them all, they really make my day. :) The next chapter is one I'd been looking forward to writing since I started this fic so I hope everyone looks forward to it.


	8. Chapter 8

A week’s notice wasn’t enough. Yuri knew that even as he handed in his resignation letter, but Yuri couldn’t help it. He needed to see Victor. That need had become a constant ache living inside his chest. Phone calls and emails weren’t enough anymore.

Yuri endured through his final week of work with more grace than he thought he was capable of mustering. He wasn’t even offended when his boss dismissed him early on the last day. It didn’t matter what they thought of him anymore.

He took the train home and all but ran back to the inn. He only slowed when his sister dove in front of him and blocked his path.

“What are you doing?” Mari asked. Her eyes narrowed at Yuri.

It was an expression Yuri remembered from his childhood. He chose his next words carefully. “I still have some packing to do,” Yuri replied. He hoped the answer would appease Mari’s piercing gaze. He wasn’t that lucky though.

“You’ve been packed for a week,” Mari said. “What’s going on? You’re already home and it’s the middle of the afternoon. I can’t remember the last time you were home this early.”

Yuri squirmed in place. His eyes darted around the hallway. “I… I quit my job.”

Mari sucked in a sharp breath.

“And they let me leave early today so I thought I’d come home and just…” _Talk to Victor for the rest of the night._ Yuri really didn’t want to admit that out loud.

Mari lit a cigarette and took a long drag. “OK. I had a feeling you might do that,” Mari said after she blew out the smoke. She leaned against the wall, but Yuri didn’t dare try to move past her.

“It’ll be fine,” Yuri said.

“Do you really believe that?”

Yuri knew he didn’t. “I know how it looks…” he began to say.

“Really, Yuri? Because it looks like you’re leaving behind every secure thing in your life to chase after a fairytale.”

Yuri flinched at his sister’s words.

Mari exhaled another of puff of smoke. “I know you’re an adult. You don’t need me or anyone else to tell you what to do. I guess I just want to hear from you that you’re happy with the decisions you’re making.”

“I am,” Yuri said. It was the one thing he could say with confidence. “I don’t know if it’ll work out, but I want to take a chance.”

Mari nodded. “I’ll support you then. Go and ‘pack’ but don’t forget to say goodbye to everyone tonight.”

“I’ll only be gone two weeks.”

“Will you?” Mari grinned mischievously and Yuri blushed all the way to his ears. Mari laughed and pushed up from the wall. “Alright, I gotta get back to work. See ya at dinner.”

Yuri watched his sister retreat back down the hallway. Maybe she was right. Maybe Yuri would never come back home. The truth of that possibility hit Yuri in an almost physical way.

He shook his head and headed towards his room.

No. The opposite could be true as well. Victor only wanted Yuri’s time for now. For only two weeks. That wasn’t a guarantee that he’d always want Yuri’s time. So maybe it wouldn’t work out and Yuri would be home again in two weeks and he’d never see Victor again. Never get another email or photo. Yuri would find a new job and read about Victor marrying someone he didn’t know.

It was scary. Everything Yuri was doing right then was scary. The fear that Victor would reject Yuri haunted him. Even so, Yuri was determined to go forward because he knew at least one thing was true...

Victor wanted his time for now.

 

~  ~  ~

 

Yuri rubbed his jetlagged eyes and peered around the room. Victor said he’d send someone to pick him up…

His eyes landed on a man with two-toned hair, holding a sign that read, “YURI.” He was nicely dressed, but didn’t really stand out amongst the other drivers waiting for their passengers. As Yuri approached, the man seemed to notice him for the first time. Actually, it was more like he recognized Yuri which was strange since Yuri knew he’d never seen the driver before.

The driver threw an arm around Yuri the second he was close enough to reach.

“It’s so good to see you again,” the driver said. “Did you miss me?”

“Uh.” Yuri glanced around nervously as he was lead through the doors to the parking garage. Before he could say anything else, the driver pushed him towards the rear door of an SUV with dark tinted windows.

“We’ll save the catching up for later. Now hurry in and don’t let the door open up too widely there.”

Yuri was all but shoved into the back of the car. He looked around the vehicle as the driver loaded his luggage into the back, but there was nothing besides a bottle of water and a rather large, purple blanket on the seat. He was pretty sure he wasn’t being kidnapped, but still…

The second the trunk snapped shut, the blanket sprang up and out popped Victor. He was wearing a dark suit and, bizarrely, a pair of sunglasses.

“Yuri!” Victor cried. The prince spread his arms and threw himself on Yuri.

“V-Victor! Why-?”

The driver slid into the front seat and looked in the rearview mirror. “Victor, you have to stay down. We’re not in the clear yet.”

Victor pouted, but pulled himself off Yuri and cloaked himself with the oversized blanket again. He stuck out one hand though and patted around until he found Yuri’s hand. They twined their fingers together.

“I snuck out of the palace to come meet you.” Victor’s muffled voice came from under the blanket.

Yuri squeezed the hand he was holding. “Thank you,” he said.

“Aw. What a pair of lovebirds you two already are,” the driver said. He started the car and pulled out of the parking space. “Now shove Victor onto the floor so he’ll stop looking so obvious.”

“You wound me, Chris,” replied the blanket covered Victor. He released Yuri’s hand and slumped onto the floor willingly though.

Chris. That was a familiar name, but Yuri couldn’t place it. Maybe they had met before?

“Yuri, I know you’ll be jetlagged tonight, but we were thinking of showing you the sights tomorrow night. If you’re feeling up to it, that is?” Chris asked.

“Oh. OK. I think that’ll be fine,” Yuri said.

“We’re gonna have so much fun,” said the barely audible prince.

Yuri smiled, despite his fatigue. He was already having fun. Listening to Chris and Victor argue about the lousy disguise was entertaining. Chris didn’t give Victor permission to sit up until they had entered the palace grounds.

Victor sprang up, wincing a little. “My leg fell asleep,” Victor grumbled as he collapsed onto the seat beside Yuri. “How dare you make a prince hide under a blanket.” There was no venom in his voice. This just seemed to be the way they talked to each other.

“I’ll just pack you into the trunk next time then,” Chris said lightly.

Victor smiled and changed the subject as if nothing was ever threatened. “Well, Yuri, I suppose you need a proper introduction to my dear friend here.”

“Oh, we’ve already been properly introduced,” Chris said.

“You may be the only person in the world that considers stripping together in a club to be a proper introduction…” Victor said.

_Oh no._

“…But I’m sure Yuri would appreciate another introduction.”

“Well, if the prince insists,” Chris said as he pulled the car into the longest garage Yuri had ever seen. He turned off the vehicle and turned around in his seat. “I’m Baron Christophe Giacometti, but don’t let the title fool you. I’m a minor noble of a small neighboring country that no one here really cares about.”

Victor clicked his tongue. “Not that unimportant of a country. After all, we did first meet when your family was invited to the palace.”

“My aunt was invited after she became engaged to a duke. I only tagged along,” Chris corrected. “On the bright side that means that hardly anyone here cares who I am, let alone knows that I’m friends with the prince. It makes our late night excursions a little easier,” he said with a wink.

Yuri’s mind was still reeling from the earlier stripping related revelation. He untied his tongue just long enough to mumble a greeting in reply. Victor immediately looked concerned.

“Ah, I think we’ve kept our guest up too long. You must be exhausted, Yuri. Let me show you to your suite.”

Yuri nodded. It was better if they thought he was simply jetlagged. He needed time to get over his embarrassment.

They got out of the car and a team of servants swooped in to gather Yuri’s luggage and offer him snacks and a bottle of water. Yuri only accepted the water. He was too distracted trying to fight the urge to wrestle his bags out of the servants gloved hands. Partly because they were dressed so much neater than he was. No one in a suit should be carrying the luggage of a guy dressed in a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans.

Yuri smoothed down the worst wrinkles in his shirt instead and followed behind. Well behind. Yuri didn’t feel like he had any right to be walking in front of so many finely dressed people. At some point though, the prince had to stop the whole procession, walk to the back, place an arm around Yuri’s shoulders and forcibly steer him to the front.

It was just a lot to take in. On many levels.

Marble columns. Intricately painted murals that covered entire rooms. Gold painted accents on every flourish and decoration in every room. Vases full of flowers that most certainly weren’t blooming anywhere near here considering the almost knee deep snow that covered the world beyond the ten foot tall windows. The weirdest thing was the number of chairs. Gold trimmed, red velvet chairs were everywhere and yet Yuri was pretty sure no one ever sat on them. They looked pristine. They looked like they were just for show, like so many other things in the palace.

By the time they got to the door his suite, Yuri was exhausted.

Chris bid him goodnight with a wink and a grin before Victor all but dragged Yuri into the suite. The servants swept in behind them and started bustling around the room. Yuri couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what they were doing because he keep spinning in slow circles around the center of the room. It was huge. Monstrously huge. Just as elaborately decorated as the other rooms they passed. The only difference was this room had several sofas and a large screen television mounted on one wall.

Yuri was afraid to touch anything.

“…the best suite in the palace!”

Yuri turned towards the sound of Victor’s voice. Apparently he’d been talking for a while. Yuri only just nodded.

Victor grinned down at him and said, “Let me show you the rest of your suite.”

“The…the rest?” Yuri stuttered.

Victor led the way to a door Yuri hadn’t noticed and pushed it open. They stepped inside another ornate room, but this one was possibly a bedroom. After all, there was a bed in the room. Logically it would be a bedroom. The only problem was that the bed was literally so big that it intimidated Yuri. He rather suspected the bed was bigger than his entire room back home.

And there were embroidered curtains draped around it. Who needs curtains around their bed?

“Start a fire for our guest, please.” Victor said to one of the omnipresent servants.

The servant bowed and rushed over to a large fireplace. Before Yuri could protest that no one needed to do anything for him, Victor had his arm around Yuri’s shoulders again and was pushing him towards yet another door. This one opened into what must’ve been the world’s largest bathroom. There was a marble countertop with two sinks, a mirror that ran half the length of the room, a shower with three faucet heads, and finally…

“A hottub! Just for you!” Victor grinned his ridiculous grin. “It’s not as nice as Yu-topia, but I hope you find it relaxing.”

“I’m sure I will,” Yuri said weakly. He lost count of the number of jets in the hot tub by the time he reached the thirties. It was big enough that Yuri could almost swim in it.

Victor touched Yuri’s shoulder, snapping him out of his trance.

“One last thing to show you before you fall asleep, OK?”

Yuri nodded and Victor walked them back towards the first room they’d entered. The room Yuri now realized was supposed to be the living room. Oddly, the servants seemed to take this as their cue to leave and started to quietly exit the room.

Victor ignored this. He paused at a table with two phones, one red and one white, sitting on top of it. “If you pick up this one,” Victor said as he pointed to the red phone, “you’ll get a servant. You can call them for anything you need at any time, day or night. You can also ask them to connect you to the phone in my room. The other phone is an outside line so you can call your family if you’d like. Cell reception can be spotty on the palace grounds.”

“That’s very considerate,” Yuri said.

A hand brushed Yuri’s cheek. His eyes met Victor’s and Yuri was surprised to see the prince gazing at him softly.

“Have a good night, Yuri.”

“I will,” Yuri replied because it was hard to imagine he wouldn’t with all the luxuries now at his disposal. Victor’s warm hand lingered another moment on Yuri’s cheek and he thought Victor might try to kiss him. Instead, Victor dropped his hand and left the room.

Yuri stared at the door for several moments. He wanted Victor to open the door again. He wanted the overwhelming silence of the room to be broken by that cheery voice and a silly grin.

The door didn’t open.

Belatedly, Yuri remembered that the palace servants took his luggage and presumably it was somewhere in the suite. He wandered back into the bedroom and found his suitcase sitting next to an old-fashioned dresser. He opened the bag and dug out something comfortable for sleeping. Yuri crawled into bed convinced he wouldn’t get any sleep. He was still trying to wrap his head around the situation.

Everything here belonged to, or rather, would belong to Victor. He was the only child of the king and queen. The single heir destined to lead one of the largest kingdoms in the world.

And here was Yuri. Pretending that he could be anywhere near worthy of being in Victor’s shining presence.

Yuri pulled the covers over his head.

Maybe tomorrow he’d magically become the man Victor deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooo happy I could finally introduce Chris into this story! What kind of sightseeing could he have planned? ;D


End file.
